He shook his head stubbornly. “There’s no time and there’s nowhere better. You know, I don’t need your permission, Ella. I could ask her directly, or even just go into the sewer myself.” It was a calculated bluff, designed to make me acquiesce.

We sat in silence, neither speaking. “You should go,” he said a moment later. I stood, stung by his coldness. I searched for the right words to fix our quarrel. I did not want to part in anger. But the gulf remained between us, too wide to breach.

“I need to do this,” Krys pressed, trying one more time to persuade me. He was headstrong, unaccustomed to being told no.

But so was I. “If you go near the sewer, I will never speak with you again.” I turned and walked from the room.

Back on the street, I started for home, shaken. It was a bright and sunny morning now, the sidewalks crowded with people who had already begun their day. It felt as if everything was crashing down upon me and my head swirled with confusion. Krys and I had come back together, so perfectly that it might have been a dream. Now with the moment between us faded and the distance between us returned, it seemed as if it had never happened. I had trusted Krys, told him the truth about Sadie and the others hiding in the sewer. Now he was threatening to risk their safety for his own ends. I wondered with regret whether the price of getting the food Sadie needed had been too high a price to pay.

When I reached Kanonicza Street, it was after nine o’clock and there was no hope of sneaking into the house. Smoothing my hair, I started through the front door. Ana Lucia was seated at the far end of the breakfast table. As she took in the soiled, wrinkled dress I still wore from the previous day, I braced for her interrogation. But she asked me nothing. “There’s kiełbasa,” she said mildly. Hanna brought me a plate, and though I was not that hungry, I took a sausage. Of course, Ana Lucia made no mention of my birthday. She never remembered it at all.

“So, Ella,” she said a moment later. I looked up from my breakfast to find her staring at me, eyes narrowed like a cat’s. My breath caught. Did she know about Sadie being in the house last night? “You’ll be glad to know that I’m feeling better.”

I looked up. “You were ill?” Her complexion was ruddy, eyes clear. She did not appear unwell to me. “I had no idea.”

“That’s not what you told the Germans in Dębniki.” I froze, remembering the soldiers I had encountered when I had tried to go see Sadie the previous week and the excuse I had given them for my basket of food. “You said that your mother was sick and that you were bringing me food. They told Colonel Maust.” Of course they had. “You used my name, Ella. You lied about me and made me look a fool. For what?”